V. I. Lenin

Telegram To J. V. 
Stalin

Wired:18 February, 1920First Published:First published in 1942; published according to
the manuscriptSource:Lenin’sCollected Works, 4th English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, Volume 30, page 364Translated:George HannaTranscription/HTML Markup:David Walters & Robert CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marx.org) 2002. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of theGNU Free Documentation License

Ukrainian Council of the Labour Army, Kharkov

Copy to the Ukrainian Revolutionary Committee

I am glad to learn that you have requisitioned a moderate amount—158 [million poods}—and are leaving ten per cent for the poor, and that you have already detailed three regiments and four squadrons for the Ukrainian Council of the Labour Army.

My advice: (1) protect the coal that is ready and send reinforcements quickly to the Caucasian Front. That is most important of all; (2) protect the salt and let regiments and squadrons occupy one volost after another in the vicin-ity of the Donets Basin and carry out requisitioning fully, awarding bread and salt to the poor; (3) immediately mobi-lise part of the Kharkov and Donets Basin workers for the Food Army to work together with the regiments and squadrons; (4) the work of the Ukrainian Council of the Labour Army to be measured by the daily amount of grain and coal delivered and the number of locomotives repaired.